In recent years, extensive investigations have been increasingly made on utilization of microorganisms and enzymes as catalysts for various productions of chemical substances.
An enzyme capable of hydrating nitriles to form the corresponding amides is known as nitrilase or nitrilehydratase. It has been described that bacteria belonging to the genus Bacillus, the genus Bacteridium in the sense of Prevot, the genus Micrococcus and the genus Brevibacterium (Japanese patent application (OPI) No. 86186/76 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,081) (the term "OPI" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application")), bacteria belonging to the genus Corynebacterium and the genus Norcardia (Japanese Patent Publication No. 17918/81, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,968), and bacteria belonging to the genus Pseudomonas (Japanese Patent Publication No. 37951/84) have nitrilase activity and hydrate nitriles to form the corresponding amides, particularly acrylonitrile, to form acrylamide.